Friends mail books to U.S. troops in Puerto Rico

Friends mail books to U.S. troops in Puerto Rico

Books for Troops volunteer Gene Roeder was preparing a shipment of books for Operation Paperback when his contact sent along this message from Benjamin Blackman, who is involved with the program and the troops currently assisting hurricane victims in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands:

"The multiple storms have roughly 50% of our active personnel here in Latin America operating in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Given the lack of power there, we are hoping to send some books that way. It may well be that this mission will go on for a while and of course, we'd be grateful for any fiction and nonfiction books you could send our way. We will load them onto supply aircraft and give these soldiers, sailors and airmen something to do during their downtime. Having just returned from PR, I can tell you that it is much worse than it looks on television. We are concentrating on trying to serve the most at risk, including children and the elderly. It is extremely discouraging. Thank you in advance for your support.”

So of course Gene immediately gathered the 34 cartons containing more than 1400 books, and with help from PVLD Maintenance Lead Jose Leiva, transported the books to the main post office. There, employee Vasuki Kuharajan attached labels with the address Benjamin had provided and mailed them off.